Screen Printed Electrodes Open New Vistas in Sensing: Application to Medical Diagnosis

Glucose sensing represents a billion dollar per annum global market which has its origins in screen printing and electrochemistry. Screen printing can produce economical one-shot disposable sensors which can be used for the rapid, sensitive, and portable analysis of many target analytes in a plethora of areas. However, for new sensors based on this process to be developed and implemented commercially, next generation screen printed electrodes need to be designed with the boundaries of screen printing pushed and their fundamental understanding needs consideration. In this chapter we will first overview recent advances in electrode design, fabrication, and fundamental understanding and second explore how this forms the basis of a multitude of point-of-care medical sensors which have built upon the basis of glucose sensing with their design and implementation consequently revolutionised and dramatically improved the quality of life for many.